I had just returned from India and I thought about registering in the 3M marathon, Austin. But I was unsure about my goals and I did not know what I am getting into. I asked myself why would I wake up at 5am on a Sunday morning and go running with a crowd ? What am I going to achieve by running 13.1 miles ?
I guess I was not interested because I did not have any motivation for running. And one fine day my fiance asked me if I was going to participate in the marathon. And I don't know why, but at that time I said YES. And then it was just a one way street. I had to do it.
I started running 2-3 miles a day on treadmill. I would get exhausted very soon. But later after a self-analysis I realized that my shoes were the source of the problem. I went to Texas Running Company store nearby where they performed the gait analysis and found me the right pair of shoes. These shoes were a little bit different from the normal ones as they have gels on either left or right side of the shoe. The purpose of the gel is to absorb the shock and to also help correct the pronation and supination.
Well now I could last for 5-6 miles on the treadmill. So I guess the special $140 shoes were worth it. The next challenge was running outside on a trail. This was though cause now I had to account for the elevation changes. I did really bad initially. But as the time passed I could manage to do 8-9 miles on the trails within 2 hours 20 mins. And let me tell you this that I had never completed 13.1 miles on a trail before running a half-marathon. The maximum I did was 11 miles.
With two weeks away from the Marathon the next challenge was to get adjusted to the early hour running. This meant I would wake up at 5am and go running in the cold and then come back and get ready for job. The idea was to adjust the bowel movements to the wee hours.
So finally If I sum up these were the challenges I faced while preparation
1) Good pair of shoes
2) Running outside and able to sustain for more than 8-9 miles
3) Early Morning runs
I guess I was not interested because I did not have any motivation for running. And one fine day my fiance asked me if I was going to participate in the marathon. And I don't know why, but at that time I said YES. And then it was just a one way street. I had to do it.
I started running 2-3 miles a day on treadmill. I would get exhausted very soon. But later after a self-analysis I realized that my shoes were the source of the problem. I went to Texas Running Company store nearby where they performed the gait analysis and found me the right pair of shoes. These shoes were a little bit different from the normal ones as they have gels on either left or right side of the shoe. The purpose of the gel is to absorb the shock and to also help correct the pronation and supination.
Well now I could last for 5-6 miles on the treadmill. So I guess the special $140 shoes were worth it. The next challenge was running outside on a trail. This was though cause now I had to account for the elevation changes. I did really bad initially. But as the time passed I could manage to do 8-9 miles on the trails within 2 hours 20 mins. And let me tell you this that I had never completed 13.1 miles on a trail before running a half-marathon. The maximum I did was 11 miles.
With two weeks away from the Marathon the next challenge was to get adjusted to the early hour running. This meant I would wake up at 5am and go running in the cold and then come back and get ready for job. The idea was to adjust the bowel movements to the wee hours.
So finally If I sum up these were the challenges I faced while preparation
1) Good pair of shoes
2) Running outside and able to sustain for more than 8-9 miles
3) Early Morning runs
